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198TH BIRTHDAY OF CHARLES DARWIN
FEBRUARY 12, 2007, at Noon
ASU Life Sciences A-wing, first floor alcove
The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth is February 12, 2009, but the celebration begins this year.
SoLS sponsored a gathering on February 12th, 2007 to celebrate Darwin's 198th birthday and to examine some of the events of Darwin’s early life, from
birth to the end of the Voyage of the Beagle, with special emphasis on the Voyage.
Charles Darwin’s Book “The Origin of Species” and his other works changed the way scientists and many other people
think about the World and were arguably the most important works on biology ever written. So, how did that happen?
What events led Darwin to write such a book and to go on to write several others supporting his concept of evolution by
natural selection? Anyone who studies the well-documented life of Darwin realizes that numerous events and people influenced
his life. History is a web of connected events and people.
In December 1831 Charles Darwin, 22 years old, left on a voyage around the World as “naturalist” on the HMS Beagle.
The Beagle’s main mission was to do a hydrographic survey of the coast of South America from about Uruguay on the east
coast to Cape Horn and then to Central Chile on the west coast. Darwin said that the voyage was “the most important
event in my life, and has determined my whole career.” Yet, his father had doubts about his going, thinking it was a
“wild scheme,” and only through the intervention of Charles’ uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, was he allowed to go. Captain FitzRoy,
26 years old, at first doubted that Charles was up to the rigors of a long ocean trip. Several unlikely events converged to
make this voyage possible and these will be discussed. They include suicide, kidnapping, nepotism, and perhaps a little sexual
lust. Darwin started the voyage as a somewhat irresponsible youth. His father once said “you care for nothing but shooting,
dogs and rat catching.” He might have added beetle collecting and wild parties. But Charles came home a man driven to make
a name for himself in science, with a willingness to doubt the accepted scientific “truths” of his time. On seeing Charles for
the first time after the voyage his father said, “Why, the shape of his head is quite altered,” believing that his mental work
during the voyage was the cause. Although the shape of his head was not altered, something had happened on the voyage that
had caused a great change that his father noticed. Darwin without the voyage may never have redirected the course of science.
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